Techniques in the Use of Question and Answer (Q&A) Method in English Language Teaching

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Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/ P a g e | 4

Techniques in the Use of Question and Answer (Q&A) Method in

English Language Teaching

By:

DR. ARTURO G. PALAMING Assistant Professor, GRU English

Sur University College Sultanate of Oman

ABSTRACT

The question and answer method of teaching has been popular in the classroom as a teaching method. This method can also be very fruitful if used properly. To be effective, the questions and answer method must be used with a great deal of more imagination, ingenuity and intelligence in order to yield its best results.

KEYWORDS

Teaching methods, question and answer method, English Language Teaching, English, Methods and Approached in Teaching.

INTRODUCTION

Questions perform a variety of functions. They are utilized largely, however, to perform the following:

To measure the student’s achievement in knowledge, habits, abilities, skills, and attitudes. This is perhaps the most extensively involved functions of questions. Likewise, question can be used to measure the student’s understanding of the facts learned. Memorizing of facts does not insure their understanding. One of the fundamental

aims of education is to develop understanding or insight.

To stimulate interest in the work at hand. The question, to stimulate interest, must be adapted to the experience and ability of the student and should create a situation likely you involve a desire to know. Curiously or interest is the best stimulus to learning that can be utilized by the teacher. Questioning is also effective as a means of securing a vital interest in the new or advance assignment. It is wise for the teacher to stimulate the students thinking so that questions that lead to definite intellectual interests will arise.

To help students to correlate past experiences to the new lessons. Most students have read, travelled, and had other experiences that may have an important bearing upon the understanding of a given lesson. It is a wise teacher who will use the question to draw upon this valuable reservoir to supplement and interpret data already before the class. Questions related to the past experiences of the students are useful in teaching developmental lessons.

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questions will arouse intense interest which is the basis for attention. The attention of inattentive students may be gained back through the use of questions. In like manner, in a class growing listless, stimulating questions will sometimes arouse intense interest.

To develop the power of evaluation. Evaluation is one phase of the true thinking, though more prominent in some types of thought than in others. The teacher can, by the use of discriminating questions, lead the students to evaluate carefully the value of data in textbooks, both for correctness and relative significance. Students are constantly called upon to evaluate the merit of this fact over other facts, as the basis for intelligent generalization.

To develop the power of organization. The use of related questions will lead the students to see the relation of one fact to another, and the possible effect of that relationship upon broader interpretation and conclusion.

To stimulate thought. It is generally accepted that at the heart of every question there is a problem. At certain stages in learning for some individuals, even the most simple memory questions will evoke thought. In modern education the primary functions of the questions is the stimulation of thought. To accomplish this function is therefore for classroom questions to be predominantly thought provoking in nature.

To develop appreciation. A well-directed series of questions may create like and dislike. Subtle suggestions in the form of questions will serve this purpose. Social psychology has long recognized the potency of suggestions in the conditioning of favorable or unfavorable attitude and the

control of social behavior. It is important for the teacher to realize that the proper questions technique maybe a help in fostering such attitudes.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

1. USES OF QUESTION AND ANSWER TECHNIQUE

Questions perform a variety of functions. The teacher should keep in mind that one function of instrumental questions is to facilitate the teaching process towards the achievement of educational aims. The use of questions as a teaching device should not be considered as being limited to testing. The other important functions of the questions and answer procedure which should be recognized are: in drill work, in review work, in diagnosing the weakness of the students, in directing attention to certain point, in guiding the students in the recitation and participation, in developing or stimulating thinking, and in furnishing incentives to careful preparation such as examination and other test.

2. CLASSIFICATION OF QUESTION AND ANSWER TECHNIQUE

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The purpose of drill is to make mental association automatic. Good drill questions should be short, definite, and factual. They are purely memory questions and do not demand much thinking on the part of the students. Memory questions require simple recall of facts. They are used in teaching content subjects. Like drill questions, memory questions do not demand much reflection. Developmental questions are often used in teaching developmental lesson. The developmental questions are useful in getting students to associate one detail with another so as to see their proper meaning and significance. This type of questions is often used in the teaching of English and Literature. Pivotal questions are used to direct the student’s thinking to important points. A pivotal question is a comprehensive one which goes straight to the heart of the lesson under consideration. This type is often used to help students to think straight and to lead him quickly to the point of difficulty.

The other type of questions based on the mental process involved is the thought provoking questions and the factual question. Thought provoking questions require reflective thinking before the answer can be given. The examples of thought provoking questions are analytical, organization, cause and effect, explanation, comparison, and imaginative questions. Factual questions require simple recall or one-word answer, requiring less thinking on the part of the student. A question which can be answered by “yes” or “no” is another example of factual or memory questions.

3. TECHNIQUE IN ASKING QUESTIONS

Technique in asking questions in any teaching situation concerns the skillful way

and manner of questioning. There is no hard and fast rule governing the way questions are to be presented before the class, but there are practices that experience has shown to be ineffective. All the suggestions given in this research are subject to exception. But they are based upon the experiences of good teachers. No teacher can succeed in his teaching that does not have a fair mastery of the art of questioning. The following principles are suggested:

1. Questions should not be asked hurriedly, questions should be evenly distributed among the members of the class.

2. Questions once given should not be repeated.

3. Questions may be asked first before calling on the student to answer the question.

4. Questions should be asked in a natural and modulated voice rather than in imperatively formal classroom manner.

5. Questions that are quite difficult should be addressed to the bright pupils unless the slow or average students show a sign of readiness to answer.

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7. Inattentive or mischievous students should be made the targets of questions.

8. Never make the pupil conscious that he or she is through with one question.

9. The students should be encouraged to ask questions.

10.The teacher should recognize the timeless of the questions asked by the students.

4. TECHNIQUE IN DEALING WITH ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS

1. Correct answer should be followed by an encouraging remark.

2. Answer given by the pupils should not be repeated by the teacher or by the pupils except for emphasis or for correction.

3. The students should be made to observe correct English usage in answering questions in all subjects.

4. Answering in correct should be discouraged, for such is oftentimes the cause of poor disciplined.

5. Encourage liberal expressions of view in answering questions.

6. Insist on clearness on every point expressed by the students.

7. The teacher should see to it that questions asked by the students are,

as often as possible, answered by the members of the class.

8. As a general rule, the students should never be assisted in the formulation of their answer to the questions.

9. The teacher should never bluff in answering a student’s questions.

10.The teacher should get the class evaluation of the partially correct response.

CONCLUSION

The viable utilization of question and answer technique is indistinguishably identified with exhaustive information of the topic and cautious lesson arranging. The educator who truly needs to include his understudies along these lines will work out inquiries ahead of time and test their essentialness and significance instead of simply asking whatever comes into his mind during the lesson time frame.

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